


Starlights

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, To An Extent, altean au, everything is platonic, hunk & lance & pidge friendship, hunk & pidge friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 06:46:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8134175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The simulation, thanks to all of his hypemen, was a total failure. He’d like to thank the academy for this marvellous screw up that was blessed upon him on this day, adding to the list of things he can’t even achieve and will still be compared to for his ‘utter lack of skills, Cadet Kogane could have done better’ to four. Four miserable times he would for sure hear the comparison to the guy who dropped out, far more than a dozen times he’d hear it in the halls, in the classes, by the looks of people’s eyes. It stabbed at his back, thorns of roses gripping at his legs and knifes finding home in his heart.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be tagging extra things as the fic goes along, but do not fret, this au was created for our frustrated lack of platonic content. Characters will be added once they appear.

_There was the sound of a language like static in his ears. He couldn’t comprehend a single word no longer, but the meanings were still buzzing on his mind. He saw vague figures, so tall, overwhelming, above him like towering monsters. The one in black. It’s the one he thought of when he thought of monster._

_Orange, Blue, White. Warm hands, soft humming, flowers he’d never smelt before. Giggling and times of happiness were static to him, and yet as he approached the corner, the dark ominous corner of the room he was in, with infinite climbing walls, chrome and echoing beyond compare, he heard the hush whispers of Black and Yellow. Hidden behind a wall, he caught eyes with purple, and everything went black._

Lance woke up with a start, his breathing heavy. The hyperventilation began to run its course as he looked around the room frantically, trying to assess his location. He was still in the dorms. It was still at the Garrison. It was still very early in the morning. Yet despite that, there was a faint light coming from the desk across the room. He squinted his eyes. He rubbed them to make sure he was seeing things right, and rubbed them once more. He raised an eyebrow and kicked his legs over his bed, sluggishly trotting over to the desk.

He peeked over his roommate's shoulder, attempting to analyze what exactly he was doing. It was… well it was advanced calculations he had never wanted to see again for the rest of his life and forsake to the ever burning fires of hell very far away from his mind. Mathematics, the bane of his existence, and yet the love of his life.

The side lean he had been doing to get a better view of the work finally caught the attention of his roommate, who lifted his headphones and turned in his chair, giving Lance his full attention.

“Oh hey, sorry, did I wake you up? I can turn off the light if you want to go back to sleep?” He quickly reached to turn off the light, but Lance shrugged him off.

“Bad dream.” Was all he said before plopping himself down on the floor, and gracefully collapsing on his side, before rolling onto his back and staring up to the ceiling. The clock read 3:45am. He was to be awake by 7am. Class started at nine sharp for him. On Wednesdays anyway. Except for today. Today was the day they faced the simulator once more. Lance turned his head to be facing Hunk. “What are you even doing up? I thought you said it was only going to be five more minutes?” His voice sounded tired, and the disbelief was rather too evident so early in the morning.

“5 minutes turned to 5 hours?” He tried to supply his claim, but failed to do so. Lance sent him a pointed look, before turning his head back to stare up at the ceiling with a sigh.

“I’m not making you coffee. Fall flat on your face this time around. If we fail the simulator again, your fault not mine.” Hunk groaned as he switched off the light. There was the scuttling sound of the chair, and warm arms and legs touching his own cold one’s. Or well, less warm one’s.

“Same dream?” Lance nodded with a sigh. He rolled over and curled up into Hunk’s side. “It’s just a dream,” he soothed, “it’s not real.”

“It feels real.” Lance muttered indignantly.

“Dreams feel real, but they aren’t real.” Hunk soothingly patted his hair. Lance’s eyes hardened. But this dream felt like it was far more than that. It didn’t feel like a dream. Despite what others had told him, despite what he tried to believe, Lance knew in his heart of hearts that, to him, those dreams were in fact a reality. As if they were a memory. Yet, they couldn’t be. For obvious reasons. So he had to go for second fiddle.

They stayed in that position for a while. Until the alarm began to blare, announcing Lance’s early morning wakeup call. Hunk groaned from where he had been nuzzled beside him. He rolled over, hitting Lance in the face, attempting to turn of the alarm. Lance shooed away the offending hand and rolled out of the death grip and onto his feet. He stretched his stiff muscles, and yawned. Here was to applying a shiton of makeup at six am in the morning. Hooray.

Despite the rude awakening, Hunk was asleep as a rock. Or well vaguely so as he watched Lance paddle off to the bathroom to begin his morning ritual application. The LED lights flickered on, the light filled into the room, the shadows catching the corner of Hunk’s eyes. He turned over onto his side, back to the light, attempting to get a few more additional hours of sleep before he had to be officially awake. If stress wasn’t going to kill him, it was his horrible sleeping schedule.

The sound of the shower echoed in the distance, and 20 minutes later it turned off. The sound of a hair drier dulled out by closed doors followed closely after. With garbled mumbles, Hunk desperately attempted to reach for his pillow to block out the sound. All he ended up succeeding in doing was drag the blanket down onto his face. He frowned. He could make do. The alternative; burrito wrap. Goodbye world.

Lance examined the dark circles under his eyes. Nothing new. He glanced to the sea blue markings framing his eyes and going down around his arms, his waist and his legs. He hung his head as he stared into the sink, hands tightly gripping at the sides. Sometimes he wondered why he continued with covering up every single day, but he remembered when he had been six. When he had been seven. When he had been eight. And finally when he had been nine. When it all started. His mother plastered on the concealer. His little sister sat beside him on the high stool he was on, complaining about the fact he had to hide them. The blue was pretty, she said. He had wished he could have been as optimistic about it as she had been.

He chased away the memory and went to grab his handy makeup kit. Despite his mother’s first application of makeup onto him, he had been the one to actually get interested in it. Turning a shitty situation around on its head, he went to watch youtube tutorials. Were they helpful at the time? Absolutely, especially with someone who had no prior knowledge of makeup. Now he was advanced enough to do his own thing. First came the liquid, then the powder to set it. Years of practice allowed him to blend with ease. Waterproof makeup; a blessing. Saved his ass in gym class a few times. Did he have gym today? No. No he did not. It was the simulator. He groaned. He put away the makeup and pulled on his undershirt.

When the door to the bathroom opened again, the first sight to grace Lance’s eyes at the early hour of 6:42 in the morning was Burrito wrap Hunk.

“I’m. Do I even _want_ to know?” He asked precariously.

“No.” He heard the drawn out mumble muffled by the blankets.

Lance tiptoed around the monstrosity of blankets on the floor and went to pull on his uniform. Orange was so bright for so early in the morning. Why orange? Who thought it was a good idea to have orange uniforms? Why not wear their formal one’s all the time? The green was a lot nicer on the eyes.

He shot a quick look to Hunk, who, despite having to officially wake up in 18 minutes, seemed at peace and comfortable in the blanket burrito world he had built for himself. He zipped up his jacket and straightened the cuffs from the wrinkled mess it had once been.

Hunk hadn't said much the first time he saw the marks. He still hadn’t said anything. He never questioned, never wanted to know more. He only raised his eyebrow, shrugged it off and continued with his reading. Lance felt a wave of relief wash over him. He probably thought they were tattoos or something. Regretful, regretful tattoos. They weren’t in fact tattoos. What they were, well no one was actually sure. Lance’s mom had just found him like that, stranded on the beach. He was later adopted into the family. At first they were a family of two, two kids and cousins, and uncles and aunts and grandmothers and grandfathers. Everyone else was too old, so it was just him and his sister Alva.

They grew up with each other. He was the older brother, he took the initiative and dragged her along. Ballet classes were his idea, and so was gymnastics and swimming. She didn’t stick to them as much as he had. Alva moved onto sports like soccer and lacrosse. He tried, but… But it never stuck.

No one in his family ever questioned the markings, but the kids at the school yard always looked to him weirdly. Most of them in kindergarten thought it was face paint. Kids in kindergarten were always doing something kids in kindergarten did. First grade came around, and well the same interpretation still applied. Second grade was more of a hassle. It was third grade that it hit the lowest point and he began to cover himself up. He had to find tricks and plan accordingly to the day. Would there be gym? Was it raining? So on and so forth. Kids were cruel, and he played along to the strings well.

Two turned to four by the time he was in fifth grade and Alva in fourth grade. His mother had twins, little Leo and Nina. Like Alva and Lance had grown up, the terrible two grew up with one another, but they had the added bonus of older siblings. Or possibly terrible jackpot? Having older siblings was not as simple as a walk in the park, especially when Lance and Alva decided to recreate the Lion King for Halloween.

Leo and Nina never caught a glimpse of the markings, never saw him. By the time they were old enough to remember he was already out of the house for flight school, where he would spend time attempting to do his best, to achieve his dream. He’d always been drawn to space. He never knew why, but there was something out there. He was so sure. Like something had been calling to him from so far away.

Here he was at the Garrison, few years later, finally attempting to reach his dream, but all he had achieved was cargo. Cargo until Keith flunked out. He’d always be Cargo in everyone else’s eyes. Just a lucky miracle waiting to be dropped back down at any minute. Cargo that couldn’t amount to anything. He clenched his hands and took a calming breath. He could be bitter another time of the constant comparisons to someone who was no longer even here. To someone who shouldn’t even matter to him. He pulled on his boots.

Hunk threw away the blanket castle, only 10 minutes until his alarm went off. He rubbed his eyes with a large yawn and sleepily told Lance he’d be in the shower.

“Alright, if you need me I’ll be in the cafeteria. Don’t forget the simulator.” He called out as he stuffed a few additional things into his eternally never ending, blessed unisex generic worn by every single student pants. Truly, a wonderful thing.

“Don’t. Don’t remind me.” The voice of someone who was full of sleepless regret. Something they had found themselves becoming too familiar with these past months. Lance rolled his eyes, before slamming the door behind him, waking up Hunk, and their various neighbours in the process. Angry cries laid in his wake.

At 7:20am the cafeteria was quiet. Most people weren’t up and around until 7:40 am, 20 minutes before the official beginning of classes. So for Lance, the cafeteria was quiet. Rather too quiet if he could hear the buzzing of the fluorescent lights overhead. You would think they would upgrade the quality over the years? The lights flickered from time to time and he was sure there was more dead bug than light. 

He looked up from the mess of generic cafeteria food and noted their elusive communications specialist reading a book, so wrapped up in their own world and their headphones. With a devious smirk, Lance devised a plan. 

The plan. Well the plan, to say the least, would get their -- Pidge Gunderson, elusive third member of their team, must be level 100 to unlock backstory -- attention. Would it get the attention he wanted? No. In fact, it would get annoyance. Still, attention nonetheless.

“Oh. It’s you.” Wow, harsh.

“It’s me.” If it was possible, which of course it was Lance was the witness, Pidge’s frown deepened even more so than what Lance was originally thought possible.

“ _Don’t_ crash the simulator today.” Was all they had to say before closing up their book, picking up their tray and headed for the exit. On Pidge’s tailwinds Hunk appeared, looking rather confused at the exchange and sitting himself right across from Lance. Coffee in hand, he seemed far better, and more awake, than he had 20 minutes prior. Where coffee had no effect on Lance, it had every effect on Hunk.

“Hey.” Hunk’s cautious greeting, as he sipped on the hot liquid.

“Hm” came the dull reply. Hunk turned to stare out the door where Pidge had just exited minutes ago and back to Lance’s crestfallen face.

“You know, he’s pretty easy to talk to if you warm up to him.” Hunk said offhandedly. Lance pushed away his food and laid his head on the cool surface of the table.

“I don’t think he wants to warm up to me.” Rather dejected, Lance braved to reach for one more piece of his breakfast before painfully swallowing it, making it the last piece of food for the day until the simulation. “So I might have crashed the simulator once-” 

“Three times.” Hunk supplied factually. Another pointed look was sent Hunk’s way. 

“No more hugs from me.” 

“You sure?” Hunk sipped at his coffee once more. Now he remembered one of his other factors for not having a distinctive preference for coffee. Hunk was a little shit when he had some.

“You lost your hug privileges.” Hunk continued to sip at the coffee, eyeing him in a way that unnerved Lance to no end. He groaned frustratedly before letting out a loud and drawn out “Fine.” Hunk’s only response was to smirk. 20 Hunk, 27 Lance. “So I crashed the simulator three times, big deal?” It wasn’t the end of the world or anything like that. 

“Kind of, yeah?” Crashing the simulator was kind of a big deal. Lance raised his head from the cool surface of the table for the sole purpose to glare Hunk down.

“Hunk, you aren’t helping me here.” He eyed the coffee nested off to the side. He grabbed it in his hands, the warm sides heating him up. Staring Hunk dead in the eyes, he downed to remainder of the coffee in one strong, and soon to be very regretful, swing. The heat of the coffee finally hit his mouth, but he grimaced through it. He needed to maintain the cool image, uphold the suave and who was he kidding. Hunk gently passed over some cool water for him to down and ease the pain.

“Always here to help.” He replied with a smile. Lance felt a bitter frown pull onto his face as he slouched into himself and nursed his burnt tongue.

The simulation, thanks to all of his hypemen, was a total failure. He’d like to thank the academy for this marvellous screw up that was blessed upon him on this day, adding to the list of things he can’t even achieve and will still be compared to for his ‘utter lack of skills, Cadet Kogane could have done better’ to four. Four miserable times he would for sure hear the comparison to the guy who dropped out, far more than a dozen times he’d hear it in the halls, in the classes, by the looks of people’s eyes. It stabbed at his back, thorns of roses gripping at his legs and knifes finding home in his heart.

Despite that he had done some good, like save Pidge’s ass before they too found themselves on the way to drop out status. Which was probably the reason they were now warming up to him when he found himself on the roof, with Hunk, after a small sneak out to bond as a team turned into ‘let’s see where Mr.Mystery’s going’. Even if against Hunk’s better judgement. Well Hunk’s better judgement be damned for once, he was here to live. Live they would.

Everything started small. This wasn’t different. They thought it was just a hobby of Pidge’s, but it degenerated, and degenerated, and degenerated to the point where they found themselves in a small cabin in the desert with none other than his missing hero Takashi Shirogane and drop out Keith Kogane. Where they would be looking for some alien weapon, thanks to Pidge for the series of numbers that, thanks to Hunk, lead to building an element tracking machine for an element that does not exist on Earth. You would think all elements exist on Earth seeing as everything on Earth is made from stardust, but some surprises remained it seemed.

And, he admitted begrudgingly, thanks to Keith for an approximation of the location.

There were moments that struck Lance as déjà vu. While at first they thought the alien thing was nonsensical, the word Voltron struck him at his core. It was familiar to him, maybe because it sounded so much like the name of a transformer? That was possibly it, he told himself. But then the Blue Lion, and it felt like he was being dragged down. Too much static trying to remember. Maybe it was just really freaky foresight. It happened to his aunt Martha a few times, who didn’t say it ran in the family? Well he wasn’t blood family, but still, family.

The cave, now the cave was when the pulling sensation was familiar. Now he might have made fun of Keith for it, and he absolutely does not regret that one bit no siree, but the pulling was when he had to draw the line. The cave drawings on the wall, they reminded him of the Blue. The Blue? The Blue in his dream. His eyebrows raised. But how could it be like the Blue in his dream? His fingers brushed the wall, and it lit up. It lit up like starlights glowing softly. Keith spoke up, saying they’ve never done that before. Of course it wouldn’t of with him. Wait, how did he know that? Before he could even begin to pursue that train of thought, the ground crumbled beneath their very feet, pulling them down, farther down the water slide, until they came crashing down and face to face with it. No. _Her_. A giant Lion.

Big and Blue and White. Infinite climbing wall of chrome came to the forefront of his mind, but now they were nothing more than rock and rubble. Keith marched forward, and Lance felt the Lion’s eyes on him. It was a giant Lion. _Is this the Voltron?_ They began to ask. Something told him it was, but it wasn’t. Keith said it must have been what was causing all of the crazy energy, and he was right. He marched forward, stating the obvious that there was some sort of force field around it.

“Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?” Lance zigzagged, keeping eye contact with the Lion. There was the examining sound before the dismissive reply of ‘No’ from Shiro. “Yeah, the eyes are totally following me.” He leaned to his right, eye contact with the Lion firm. 

Keith arrived at the Lion first, examining, trying to figure out how exactly to get through the force field. Rather nonchalantly, Lance stated maybe they just had to knock, really not expecting it to work. Yet, the force field vanished, and the world lit up Blue once more. Blue, Red, Black, Green, Yellow. All the things he knew, and Voltron, static behind his eyes clearing up, was a giant robot. And he knew, it came as no surprise. _He knew and he had never seen the thing before in his life_.

A collective gasp of ‘wow’s graced their ears, and Lance asked if everyone had seen what he had just saw. They did. In Hunk’s own words it was ‘a huge, huge awesome robot’. Blue was only one part of the puzzle. Blue? Yes, Blue.

 _This is what they’re looking for_. Shiro echoed in the background.

 _Incredible_. Keith marvelled. 

Blue leaned down, opening up her mouth to let him in. The others were allowed as well. As he watched the pathway open up, all he could think in his moments of awe and wonder were the chain of events tugging at his mind.

 _Why did he know_ **_this_**.

 

**_Why did he know H_ _er_.**

**Author's Note:**

> i'd like to thank [Mac](http://ababblingcat.tumblr.com) and [Smiley](http://catchthevoltron.tumblr.com) the co-conspirators for this au. Bless them.  
> hmu on [Tumblr!](http://celestialscroll.tumblr.com) thanks for reading seriously. im not sure if i should tag the fic with trans character bc i hc lance as arospec bi trans but hey. same for pidge. well anyway applying human gender binary dynamics to space aliens and getting angry about it doesn't come until much later so we got time


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